EMTJUNKIE's blog: "CAREER RELATED"

High-pressure job saves lives

When Steve Dyson decided to look for a new career, an event from his adolescence helped steer him to becoming a paramedic.

“When I was about 14, we were riding in the car with my mom,” Dyson said. “When we got close to the house, we saw a wreck where someone had gone off into a ravine.”

Dyson’s mother got out to help the driver and instructed her children to stay in the car.

“So we were looking out the windows watching everything that was going on,” he said.

Dyson’s mother helped bring the driver up the road while she waited for paramedics to arrive.

“That was something I always remembered,” he said. “We always tried to help people when we could.”

Years later, Dyson was working at the Rusken box plant and decided he wanted to do something different. He thought about becoming a paramedic, but he wasn’t sure he would be able to handle the pressure.

“One day, a friend of mine at the plant got his foot caught between a cog and a chain,” Dyson said. “We were all trying to help him get unstuck. I was able to keep my cool and get him out.”

Dyson decided he would be able to handle the job and joined his local volunteer fire department, the Loretto Fire Department, and started taking classes to become a first responder. He spent about a year and a half working as a dispatcher taking calls and making occasional ride alongs in the truck.

He started back to school taking EMT classes. The EMT classes are divided into three levels – basic, intermediate and paramedic. Dyson got to the intermediate level and got a job in Blount County, where he stayed for two years.

“I went back to school to get my paramedic. By then I was working two full-time jobs and going to school,” he said. “It was hard. I didn’t get to see much of my wife and kids at the time.”

During this time, Dyson worked a few times at American Ambulance Service.

“I just kept coming back here,” he said. “They sort of raised me. I learned a lot of trade secrets here. I learned how to be quicker. You’re trying to do so much in the back of a truck riding down the road. When you can learn how to be quicker, all the better.”

He is now a nationally registered EMT paramedic.

At American Ambulance, Dyson makes mostly nursing home runs. They have several patients who need ambulance transport to the doctor’s office or hospital. Occasionally, American Ambulance serves as a back up service to Cullman EMS for 911 calls.

Dyson enjoys helping patients and being able to contribute to their lives even if he doesn’t get to see them again.

“One year, we had a guy who coded two days before Christmas,” he said. “We were able to get him back. About nine or 10 months later, we got called back to his house for someone else. It was really nice to see him again. We spend 10 minutes to an hour with a patient. To know you made enough of an impact on someone is very gratifying.”

Although he enjoyed his job, he started to think about getting out of the EMT business. The 24-hour shifts can take their toll.

“I was looking for a Monday through Friday job,” he said. “But I never got any response back to the applications I put out. Then all the plants started laying people off. It was a blessing to not get one of those plant jobs. This is where God wanted me to be. I’ve met so many people who’ve allowed me to be a part of their lives. I’m finding more pleasure and satisfaction in my job.”

One of Dyson’s favorite stories is that of a 102-year-old patient he helped transport to the hospital for the first time.

“She was 102 and living at the nursing home,” he said. “She did everything for herself and even helped the other residents. It was her first time to go to the hospital. She was a great patient.”

In 2006, Dyson served as a civilian paramedic in Iraq.

“Originally, I planned to stay there 12 to 18 months,” he said. “I was there 22 months instead.” Dyson left for Kuwait in August 2006. He spent two months in Kuwait before going to Iraq. He returned home in June 2008.

Dyson said his wife, Jessica, wasn’t keen on him going into a war zone.

“But we ran the numbers,” he said. “If I went overseas, I would only be away from the family three days a month more than I had been in the past year.”

Previously, when he was off work, Dyson said he usually spent his time trying to recover and prepare for the next shift. With the vacation package offered by working overseas, he would have two weeks at a time off work.

“I was able to spend time with my family when the kids were off school,” he said. His sons Eli, 7, and Sam, 12, were happy to have him home for those longer periods of time.

While there, Dyson met and made friends from around the world, many of whom he still keeps in touch with. The experience was a great one, he said, but he happy to be back home.

“Being gone was a blessing,” he said. “It made me appreciate things once I got home ever more.”